Emerging markets may have some catching up to do in economic terms, but they are often miles ahead of developed markets when it comes to adopting new technology.

Take contactless payments. In the majority of shops in the western world we continue to fiddle with pin numbers and receipts, while in far-flung cities like Istanbul consumers simply waive their mobile phones or plastic cards and a transaction is complete. Read more

Images of tens of thousands of Muscovites protesting in the streets have hit the rouble and the Russian stock market, but one Russian executive says the country’s risk profile has not suffered.

“We don’t feel any pressure,” Alexander Abramov, chairman of Evraz, the country’s largest steel company, told the Financial Times on Monday – the day the company made its FTSE 100 debut. Investors weren’t convinced and the stock fell 4.4 per cent amid general concern about Russian political risk. Read more

It’s as if the global economic rout never happened. 360Buy, the Chinese online retail giant is looking to raise $4-5bn in an IPO next year, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication. It would be the largest Internet IPO ever in the US.

The announcement comes just over a month after Qiangdong Liu, the founder of the company also known as Jingdong Mall, said he anticipated “tough days” this year or next for e-commerce companies. What’s with the optimism? Read more

Emerging markets have been good to carmakers and South Africa is no exception. At first glance August vehicle sales figures published on Friday support the story of an ongoing boom – with overall sales up 11.1 per cent year-on-year in August, from 10.5 per cent in July. But parsing the numbers, it’s not all positive news.

Turkey’s economic statistics might make the country look like anything but a safe bet among emerging markets. The chronic savings deficit, high unemployment, and an 8 per cent current account deficit trouble many investors. So does a stop-start economic record.

But in its latest EM report, Bank of America Merrill Lynch argues that the outlook for Turkey, when compared to other EEMEA countries, is actually pretty good. All that is needed is economic stability and a bout of serious reforms. Quite. Read more

Here’s a thought: if economic growth in developed markets were to fall off the cliff, would growth in emerging markets save the world economy? Would the penny-saving populations of Asia at least provide a backstop? In short, is there any hope of a growing market anywhere, for Western corporations which are faced with declining sales and revenues from their home markets?

In his most recent note to clients, Can Asia Save the World?, HSBC’s Frederic Neumann illustrates why it’s not all bad news. Read more

Well this news didn’t come as a surprise, but we almost missed it: Sino-Forest on Sunday announced the resignation of its chairman and CEO. The announcement came quiet as a mouse, after a very confusing news day for Sino-Forest investors at end of the trading week.

Diageo on Thursday reported strong annual results and disclosed the bill for the acquisitions it made in the year to June in emerging markets – a full £1.6bn in countries ranging from China to Tanzania.

But shareholders won’t be complaining as emerging markets contributed the lion’s share of a 5.3 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to £2.36bn. The shares rose 6 per cent on the news, in a clear sign that the City likes the EM-oriented strategy. Read more

A rare opportunity for investors to invest in Mongolia outside its big natural resources companies comes with a foreign-run conglomerate involved in everything from real estate and cement to financial services and transport.

Asia Pacific Investment Partners, controlled by American businessman Lee Cashell, hopes to raise $30m through a placement of stock ahead of an IPO which could come next year. Read more

US vice president Joe Biden isn’t having an easy time of it in China – at least not with the public diplomacy involved in this week’s visit to Beijing.

First, his opening remarks at a key meeting with Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, were interrupted by a kerfuffle involving Chinese officials and journalists covering the trip.

Next, a meal at a small restaurant in one of Beijing’s alleyways was criticised by Chinese bloggers who detected a note of PR phoney in what was made to look like a casual event. Finally, a goodwill China-US basketball match ended in a brawl. Read more

If Tudou (TUDO:NMQ), a Chinese YouTube knockoff, was a bellweather of sorts for the prospects of Chinese companies listing in the US and for IPOs more generally, its debut performance in morning trading on Wednesday does not bode well.

Asked about what he intended to do to make sure Baidu, China’s largest online search engine, would not lose out in the rapid rise of the microblogs in China, he said: “Baidu is not in the social media business.”

When Transformers: Dark of the Moon entered production in late 2009, marketing executives saw opening before them a new frontier for product placement. Why not cram a truly American plot with Chinese products? OK, so the film has nothing to do with China. But surely Chinese consumers were ready to see their favourite brands on the big screen? And wasn’t Hollywood ready for the likes of Meters/bonwe, a Chinese clothing brand which Shia LaBeouf’s character sports at the start of the film?

Well, that was the thinking. But some vocal Chinese film-goers aren’t buying it. Read more

Talk about being opportunistic. Just days after the US was downgraded by Standard & Poors, Russia’s finance ministry said international ratings agencies have “clearly underrated” Russia. It argued its state debt as a percentage of GDP is lower than emerging and developed economies – particularly the US.

But Russia’s protestations come at an odd time, as the price of oil – key for the government to balance its budget – continues to fall. With government social spending up ahead of next year’s elections, and less oil revenues coming in due to a diminishing global appetite for risk, does Russia really deserve an upgrade? Read more

Theoretically, maintaining artificially low prices for electricity should see the proportion of paid bills rise. But PEPCO, the national power company, has seen collected revenue fall over the past year.

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beyondbrics is now the beyondbrics forum, given over exclusively to our guest writers as a forum for debate on the events, opportunities and challenges of the emerging world. Meanwhile, the FT’s emerging markets team is working on a new EM service to be launched soon on FT.com. Watch this space..